1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a card connector for connecting an integrated circuit card, and more particularly to a card connector having an ejecting mechanism for removing the card from the connector.
2. Description of Related Art
Nowadays, memory cards such as Multimedia card (MMC), Secure Digital card (SD), Smart Media card (SM), Memory Stick (MS) and the like, are widely used for storing electrical data information, correspondingly, various types of card connectors are available for connecting the mating cards to a given electronic device, such as a digital camera, a personal computer, so that information is able to be transmitted therebetween.
A conventional card connector as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,508,402 typically comprises an insulative housing defining a card receiving room and mounted with a plurality of contacts, a slider movably attached to the housing for facilitating ejection of the card, and a coil spring continuously urging the slider to move in an ejection direction of the card. A known heart-shaped groove is formed on the housing to cooperate with a pin member movably mounted therein, thereby controlling forward and backward movement of the slider. While retracting the card, an user pushes the card in the card insertion direction slightly, then the card is ejected by the slider and the spring to move outwardly and automatically, till an end of the card is exposed outside, such that the user can snatch the card and draw the card out of the connector. Insertion and ejection of the card are performed by a double push operation. A problem with said connector is that while the card is ejected by the slider under great restoring force of the coil spring, the card moves outwardly so fast, and tends to fly out of the card connector and even drops onto the ground. In this case, the card may be damaged due to impact of collision, and data information in the card may be lost.
A card connector of U.S. Pat. No. 6,767,232 is provided with a switch for detecting the presence of the card, the switch is normally open without insertion of the card. Said switch is composed of a stationary terminal and a movable terminal for contacting with the stationary terminal. In case of the insertion of the card, the movable terminal comes into contact with the stationary terminal to close the switch, accordingly, a memory system of the electronic device starts to allow data transmission between the card and the electronic device. Upon ejection of the card, the card is ejected outwardly to make switch open, and then the memory system switches off. Finally, contacts of the card disconnect with the card connector. However, since the card may be withdrawn too fast such that there is not enough time for a memory system of the electronic device to be turned off before the card disconnects from the card connector, that is to say, electrical connections between said card and the electronic device are broken when data transmissions are still in process, therefore, there is a risk of lost data.
It is thus desired to provide a card connector to overcome the shortcomings described above.